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Monthly Archives: May 2015

I had my mock and saline sonogram as part of the FET prep the other day. All went well.

I am a bit off my game this time around, but I think it’s because I have H to keep my mind preoccupied. I thought they would just be doing a mock, but they also did a saline sonogram as well.

My lining looked perfect (triple stripped, woohoo) and I had a 19mm follicle on my left side, so the tech said I should ovulate by Thursday. Going based solely on my fertility calendar, I expected to ovulate Friday/Saturday, so I was a little surprised to hear she thinks I will ovulate earlier. But hey, that means a few days closer to starting the FET cycle. The Dr. and tech joked that I am in great shape to get pregnant and if it happens naturally they still want credit. I said I would have no problem giving them credit. It would be a damn miracle!

My clinic is also in the midst of conducting a FET sustainability study which I may be eligible to participate in. The study looks at the effectiveness of PIO vs Endometrin. There are 3 groups: all PIO, all Endometrin, and Endometrin & PIO. My nurse just emailed me to let me know she is double checking to see if I can participate since my protocol will require baby aspirin and folgard for MTHFR. I let her know that I am not currently taking that, but she said I would start during the FET cycle. I guess that makes sense since I did it for the fresh cycle last time.

I also am waiting to hear back from my Endo about my TSH. I suspect she will increase that to 50mcg since it’s still higher than we all would like.

We met with Dr. L today to review all of the test results. What I thought was going to happen, didn’t. Not the way I thought it would anyway.

As it turns out M’s SA was worse than we had thought. In fact, the worst it has been. His counts were actually down. I somehow thought they were up, but I guess we were comparing his total count now to the washed sample. Major difference. So, count, motility and morphology were all lower.

My CD3 tests also came back. My antral follicle count was 14 (my clinic likes to see anything over 10) and AMH was 3.66. The other tests included:
FSH-6
E2- 37.5
LH-5.9
Prolactin-6.36
TSH- 2.9 (Still sorta high and will need to increase meds)

Dr. L laid out our options. We didn’t even discuss IUI and went straight to IVF vs FET.

He is concerned that the quality of embryos now won’t be as good due to sperm issues if we did a fresh cycle. He also said we could see an increased attrition rate from day 3 to day 5 from last time. We were fortunate in the past and didn’t have a problem with the number of eggs retrieved or fertilized. In the last IVY cycle, we did see a drop off around day 3-4. So knowing what he knows now from the testing, Dr. L. said he would probably be a little more aggressive with my stimulation to get an even better number of eggs. So basically, we get more eggs to start and hope that they pick decent sperm so we have something on day 5. Sounds like fun for me, right?

Then we talked about the 2 embryos we already have. They are day 6 expanding blastocysts (1 AB grade and 1 BA grade). For some reason he said that Day 6 has a slightly lower success rate than Day 5, but much higher than Day 7. When I asked about the odds, he said it was around 50%.

So that’s all of the medical stuff. Then we talked about the “business side”. Our insurance will cover a portion of 3 cycles.

So, in the worst case scenario that the first cycle doesn’t work, do we do:

M’s count is up (good) but motility and morphology are the same (bad). IUI is out of the question, which I sort of figured.

The only test that came back for me so far was Vitamin D and that is low. So, I need to start extra supplements again. When the nurse called about that, I asked how long the AMH test usually takes (I know it takes a little longer) and she said usually a week. But she pointed out, if we do a FET it won’t really matter. I love her optimism.

I have my CD3 blood work schedule for Sunday (Happy Mother’s Day to me?) and our follow-up meeting with Dr. L for the end of the month. That means fingers crossed, I can start to cycle in June. As in next month.

I have a feeling the next few weeks will fly by since we have H’s birthday coming up. I’ve been in full planning mode and may have a slight addiction to Etsy and Pintrest.

Today marks the first day of really starting the process all over again!

In 3-5 days we should have the results from M’s SA. AF is due to show up between tomorrow and Sunday, and as soon as she does I will call my nurse to make my CD3 appointment. That’s next week! Ah, so exciting and nerve wracking.

What may be slightly disturbing is the fact that I think we have already agreed on a name for another girl. Head in the clouds much?!?

I still need to get my blood work for my AMH but can do that any time between now and next week since it’s not time sensitive really.